The rapid expansion of information service and data processing industries has resulted in a need for computer systems to manage and store large amounts of data. As an example, financial service industry businesses such as banks, mutual fund companies or the like often operate complex data processing systems that require access to many hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of data. Data storage system developers have responded to these types of data storage requirements by integrating large capacity data storage systems known as storage arrays, as well as data communications devices and computer systems into networks called “storage networks” or “storage area networks” (“SANs”). A storage area network is a collection of data storage systems that are networked with a number of host computer systems that operate as servers to access data stored in the data storage systems. Components of a typical conventional storage area network implementation include one or more connectivity devices such as high speed data switches that interconnect the various data storage systems to each other and to one or more host or server computer systems (“servers”) that require access to (e.g., read and/or write) the data in the data storage systems on behalf of client software applications and/or client computer systems to communicate with the servers. A SAN is thus a fabric that routes input/output requests in data access protocols such as SCSI, iSCSI, Fiberchannel, or others from servers through switches to one or more data storage systems for access to data stored in those storage systems.
A developer or administrator of a storage area network environment may install one or more distributed storage area network management software applications within the storage area network to manage or administer the various resources (i.e., devices, computer systems, storage systems, etc.) that operate within the storage area network. A network administrator (i.e., a person) responsible for management of the storage area network operates a network management software application to perform management tasks such as performance monitoring, network analysis, remote configuration, storage provisioning, and other administration of the various resources (e.g., devices and software) operating within the storage area network.
A typical conventional SAN-management software application may have several different software components or processes that execute independently of each other in a distributed manner on different computer systems but that collectively interoperate together to perform network management. As an example, conventional designs of storage area network management applications can include console, server, agent, and storage or database management software components or processes that each perform a specific role in storage area network management.
Generally, the server component or process operates as a central control process within the storage area network management application and coordinates communication between the console, storage, and agent components. The console component or process often executes within a dedicated storage area network management workstation to allow a network administrator (i.e., a person or people responsible for management of the storage area network) to visualize and remotely control and manage the various components within the storage area network that are displayed on a graphical user interface within a display on the console computer system. Agent components or processes execute on the various host computer systems such as servers distributed throughout the storage area network to manage various types of storage area network resources. As an example, there may be different respective agents specifically designed (e.g., coded in software) to remotely manage, control, and collect data from data storage system resources, database applications, switches, and so forth.
Agent processes receive remote management commands from the server process and apply functionality associated with those management commands to the managed resources within the storage area network for which those agents are designated to manage. Agents may receive a command, for example, to collect or discover configuration or management data concerning the network resources that those agents manage. This device discovery data collection process can happen in a scheduled or periodic manner, or in response to a command received from the management server. When agents are finished processing a command, results are returned to the store process for storage within a database. The server can then access the database to view the results of the command sent to the agent process.